Scruffy the Wild Cat

Well I'm at it again. A long time ago, in a season far far away, Stephanie's Mom hired me to draw portraits of three of her cats. I've finally made good on one of those portraits and the others should be close behind.

This is "Scruffy". He's an outdoor cat with a bit of a wild side, so I turned him into a Mountain Man. I also recommend doing a google search for "mountain man" because it yields some interesting results. If only we could get all of those guys in a room together. It might be too much beard and animal pelts for us to handle.



I can never resist the urge to convert my portraits into a sepia tone.



And the lovely model.



You can see some of my previous cat portraits here, here, here, and here.

Birds in a Nest

This is a drawing of my brothers and I hanging out when we were younger. I'm the one in the middle. It's funny how alike we all looked at that age.

Ezra Part Deux

I was so bummed about losing my original drawing of this in my last sketch book that I decided to do a new one. Again, this is my late grandfather Ezra Masliah, now in technicolor!

Mercury is in the Toilet

I got to do another illustration for The Portland Mercury this week! The article is about new bathroom construction in public parks so a toilet in the park seemed the best way to go. Black and white for the printed version and color for the internet.



I was asked to revise my original design because it didn't look enough like a toilet, but I miss the charming eyes and smile of the toilet in the design below. Oh well, that's the illustration business I guess.



Hope everyone enjoyed the splash of nice weather we've been enjoying the past two days, because it looks like it's going to rain again tonight. When is summer coming??

00Grizzly

You may remember this little gem that I posted in December. I guess I got so swept up in 2011 fever that I forgot to post the finished version. I'm sure glad I didn't cross paths with this guy while camping in the redwoods last week. I would have felt so under-dressed.

Goshdarn Cobras

We stayed with our friend Greg while we were in New York last Fall. He probably looks a lot more snowed in now, though.

I always get very nervous before coloring a drawing in, especially if I already like the way it looks, so I took the precaution of scanning it beforehand. And here it is, fresh as a button.




Which do you like more, folks?

"I'm too old to be chasing mice"

We recently watched "The Rescuers" which I can safely say I haven't seen since I was a kid. Bob Newhart and Eva Gabor were great as Bernard and Ms. Bianca, but another stand out character was Rufus, the old orphanage cat. I decided I'd like to see what he might look like if he was a real cat, and this drawing is what I came up with.



And here's a look at what he looked like in the movie alongside the missing little girl, Penny.



Hope everyone had a good new years eve! Here's hoping the new year is filled with even more sketching than the last. What cartoon animal character would YOU like to see realistified?


"Two little mice? What- what can YOU do?

The Rebel

And finally we have Sterling Morrison. Named after the guitarist of the Velvet Underground, Sterling is the middle child of the three cats. Without the seniority of Kimmswick, or the youthful cuteness of Zardoz, Sterling is left being the forgotten one which leaves him only one choice. To REBEL. Sterling spends most of his nights out at the local all ages punk venue "Claws" and usually stumbles back around dawn, smelling of catnip. When not sleeping you can find Sterling bumming around at the park, frightening mice, practicing on his broken guitar, or listening to records. His favorite bands are Crass, The Ramones, Velvet Underground, The Stooges, and Beat Happening.

Kimmswick

This is the Godfather of the bunch. He's the oldest of the cats, the most favored, and kind of calls the shots around the house. I especially like his shimmery pink ascot.